Chris was born and raised in the wild open spaces of British Columbia, Canada, where he still lives. We met thirty years ago when we were both far from home in a foreign land. We drank wine and exchanged stories as hopeful and optimistic young men. 'Memories are made of this!' we'd shout as we'd raise yet another glass to one another. His writing is intelligent and beautiful, and reflects the wonderful part of the world in which he lives.

'ALL THOSE DRAWN TO ME' by Christian Petersen

The junction of Highways 20 and 97 forms a rough right angle around which lies the city of Williams Lake. These are the coordinates by which Christian Petersen’s fiction can be charted. From the building of the Gaol at Soda Creek to ruminations on the origins of the Barkerville fire, All Those Drawn to Me explores the unpredictable, romantic and spiritual qualities of life in rural BC. The harshness of the wild west permeates Petersen’s second collection of short fiction. In the story “Horse from Persia,” a condemned man contemplates the injustice of life at his hanging speech: “I wished mightily that I could climb up on that horse and escape the sorrowful puzzle my days had become. For if it’s true time is a gift, mine was not altogether pleasant.” But Petersen is just as comfortable extrapolating truths from present-day life, as in “Laketown Breakdown” where a young man struggles to stay on the right side of the law while coping with the death of his parents. And in the title story, “All Those Drawn to Me,” Petersen creates a masterful blend, shifting from the gold rush to the contemporary with three motives, three lives and three battles with death on the treacherous waters of the Upper Quesnel River. Whether in the past or present, Petersen’s characters explore romance, poverty and spiritual quandaries as they wander amid the landscape and back streets of the dusty little cities of BC's Central Interior.

Christian Petersen beautifully reins in the confusion and displacement of a diminishing band of men facing the daily spectre of an unforgiving land, men enslaved to the grind of the sawmill, hunkered on bar stools, high in the saddle of a John Deere, or wild behind the wheel speeding down dirt roads to the Fraser. Here are fathers, brothers, lovers in search of forsaken children, bygone loves, and memories long faded in the wash of fast-running streams and firelight.

Maria lives in Georgia, USA. She has lived in Frankenthal, Germany, and Tacoma, Washington on the east coast of the USA. She is married to Eric and she loves to read many genres of books, and is writing other fiction besides her current work, the Jasmine Dream series of books for young readers.

Musician friend of mine Chris Lee has recently turned his hand to writing. His book 'The Fairways Bequest' is a brilliant start too. A book description follows:

Matthew Longhouse is twenty-six years old, works in a shop and lives alone in a cheap flat in a provincial English city. It's an unexciting life until a chance meeting with an outrageous old man is followed by two unexpected pieces of good luck. But at the same time Matt's world is rocked by a phenomenon so outrageous he'd never believe it, were it not for the fact that to everyone around him it's not a phenomenon at all, but perfectly normal. Trying to find out what has happened to him leads to the disappearance of his feckless cousin Barry, turns him into a reluctant criminal, and results in his being hunted and finally captured by the mysterious man behind it all. The price of the answers he needs appears likely to be his life. Can Matt change what happened to him, or at least resolve himself to living with it? More importantly, will he get the chance to do either?

Contact

If you have always wanted to ask me something, now is the time to go for it!JonathanNicholas-Author@virginmedia.com

News Steve Cherry will be attending several locations across the country for book
signing events. Dates and locations to follow.
Nov 2018 - 'Cherry Picking' is now available for pre-order on Amazon and other internet retailers.
Aug 2018 - 'Cherry Picking - Life between the Sticks' has been taken on by traditional publisher The Book Guild and will be released on 28th Feb 2019
June 2018: Jonathan has now completed the manuscript for the new book 'Cherry Picking - Life between the Sticks' working with Steve Cherry, former goalkeeper with Derby County, Walsall, Plymouth
Argyle & Notts County, about his football career. Hopefully released later in 2018/early 2019.
September 2017: 'Active' released under the fiction writing pen name of Dan Hastings.
June 2016: 'Who'd be a Copper?' Shortlisted by Writing Magazine Best Self-Published Book
2016.